San Francisco Chronicle Best-Sellers

Published
4:00 am PDT, Sunday, March 18, 2007

(see chart below)

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE BEST-SELLERS
FICTION / BAY AREA
Weeks
This Last on
Week Week List
1 1 19
WHAT IS THE WHAT, Dave Eggers (McSweeney's; 386 pages; $26): A
fictionalized account of Valentino Achak Deng's real-life journey through Sudanese warfare and his life as a refugee.
2 - 1
NINETEEN MINUTES, Jodiy Picoult (Atria; 464 pages; $26.95): The author of "My Sister's Keeper" explores a Columbine-style school shooting and its
aftermath.
3 - 1
ROMA, Steven Saylor (St. Martin's; 555 pages; $25.95): The latest of Saylor's Roma Sub Rosa series traces five centuries of Roman history as
experienced by a dynastic family.
4 4 3
TEN DAYS IN THE HILLS, Jane Smiley (Knopf; 464 pages; $26): A
family escapes (news coverage of) the war in Iraq by retreating to a mansion in the Hollywood Hills.
5 - 1
THE WATCHMAN, Robert Crais (Simon & Schuster; 304 pages; $25.95): A Los
Angeles heiress comes under federal protection - and threat - after she sees something she shouldn't.
6 5 5
MURDER ON THE ILE SAINT-LOUIS, Cara Black (Soho; 304 pages; $23): Parisian computer expert-cum-sleuth Aimee Leduc works to crack a mystery on the
Seine's famous islet; by the author of "Murder in Montmartre."
7 - 1
A FAR COUNTRY, Daniel Mason (Knopf; 288 pages; $24): A poor
14-year-old girl ventures from the rural interior of an unnamed South American country to the big city, hoping to find her brother; from the author of
"The Piano Tuner."
8 - 1
WHITETHORN WOODS, Maeve Binchy (Knopf; 352 pages; $25.95): Frightening changes threaten the values of a small Irish town.
9 - 3
BASTARD OF ISTANBUL, Elif Shafak (Viking; 356 pages; $24.95): Two Turkish families, in San Francisco and Istanbul, struggle with questions of Turk
identity.
10 - 18
THE ROAD, Cormac McCarthy (Knopf; 256 pages; $24): The National Book
Award-winning author of the Border Trilogy details a postapocalyptic wasteland.
NON-FICTION / BAY AREA
Weeks
This Last on
Week Week List
1 1 8
THE SECRET, Rhonda Byrne (Beyond Words; 216 pages; $23.95): The author posits that all disease, suffering, misfortune, etc., is the result of an
improper attitude on the part of the sufferer.
2 8 2
A LONG WAY GONE, Ishmael Beah (FSG; 240 pages; $22): Beah recounts his days as a child soldier in Sierra Leone and his escape to the United States.
3 4 2
WOMEN & AND MONEY, Suze Orman (Spiegel & Grau; 272 pages; $24.95): Orman surmises that women do not invest with the same saavy savvy that men do, and
sets out to determine why; by the author of "The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom."
4 7 3
INFIDEL, Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Free Press; 368 pages; $26): A Somali-born Dutch
politician discusses her rejection of the Islamic faith and the events that followed her collaboration with filmmaker Theo van Gogh.
5 2 10
ABOUT ALICE, Calvin Trillin (Random House; 96 pages; $14.95): The longtime New Yorker writer's reflections on his late wife and their life together
before her death on Sept. 11, 2001.
6 5 20
THE AUDACITY OF HOPE, Barack Obama (Crown; 38475 pages; $25): The Illinois senator and presidential candidate discusses his religious beliefs,
personal values and prescription for America's future.
7 0 36
THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA, Michael Pollan (Penguin; 464 pages; $26.95): The UC Berkeley journalism professor examines America's food culture and takes on
some surprising targets.
8 6 2
IN AN INSTANT, Lee and Bob Woodruff (Random House; 304 pages; $25.95): The former ABC News co-anchor and his wife recount the challenges they faced
after he was nearly killed by a bomb while reporting in Iraq.
9 - 16
THE GOD DELUSION, Richard Dawkins (Houghton Mifflin; 416 pages;
$27): The noted evolutionary biologist launches a vigorous assault on religious belief.
10 - 1
THE ART OF AGING, Sherwin B. Nuland (Random House; 320 pages; $24.95): The author of "How We Die" provides a guide to getting older, with emphasis on
physical fitness and social interaction.
QUALITY PAPERBACKS / BAY AREA
Weeks
This Last on
Week Week List
1 1 6
EAT, PRAY, LOVE, Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin; 352 pages; $15): A woman leaves her husband and spends a year traveling the world in search of meaning;
by the author of "The Last American Man."
2 4 41
THE HISTORY OF LOVE, Nicole Krauss (Norton; 272 pages; $13.95):
A sweeping novel of love, a lifetime spent searching and an aging man's quest to restore his vitality; from the author of "Man Walks Into A Room."
3 2 22
THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS, Kiran Desai (Grove; 384 pages;
$14): A novel of social and political upheaval in an Anglophilic family during in 1980s India; from the author of "Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard."
4 - 2
SOMA, Kemble Scott (Kensington; 320 pages; $15): The bacchanalia of a certain San Francisco neighborhood is exposed in this novel of spiritual and
sexual seeking.
5 - 45
NEVER LET ME GO, Kazuo Ishiguro (Vintage; 304 pages; $14): A
boarding school in the English countryside is home to some very peculiar children; from the author of "The Remains of the Day."
6 - 3
ARTHUR AND GEORGE, Julian Barnes (Vintage; 464 pages; $14.95): Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and an obscure, though also real, late Victorian Englishman find
their lives increasingly intertwined; by the author of "Flaubert's Parrot."
7 - 1
ASTRID AND VERONIKA, Linda Olsson (Penguin; 288 pages; $14): Two women - a young writer and the much older town crank - become friends in a remote
Swedish village.
8 - 30
CASE HISTORIES, Kate Atkinson (Back Bay; 336 pages; $13.995): This
literary thriller explores three murders occurring decades apart; by the author of "One Good Turn."
9 - 10
ISTANBUL, Orhan Pamuk (Vintage; 400 pages; $14.95): The Nobel Prize winner
draws a portrait of a family, and city and an empire in long, slow decline.
10 - 1
THE NAMESAKE, Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner; 304 pages; $14): A successful
first-generation Indian American struggles, despite his professional achievements, to find his place in American life.